Podbit · Last Podcast On The Left
Stephen King floated the idea of a haunted GPS that keeps routing you to the same unwanted destination. Joe Hill immediately saw the potential. The room agreed: this one has legs.
Where this was said
At 59:25 · chapter starts 58:30
Ben asks a direct question that's been lurking in the subtext: what's the deal with scary cars? Christine, Maximum Overdrive, Throttle — the King catalogue is full of them. Stephen's answer is pragmatic: cars are everywhere in our lives, and if you're going to have a serious accident, it's probably in a car. He then adds the quietly shocking personal footnote — he wasn't in a car accident, he was hit by a car while walking, the 1999 incident that nearly killed him. Joe offers a more craft-oriented answer: a character's car is the fastest shortcut to personality and values in fiction, because it represents the biggest purchase most people make. Stephen closes the segment by pitching a haunted GPS story — a device that keeps routing you back to somewhere you didn't want to go — and Joe immediately agrees it has genuine potential.
Joe Hill writes about cars because a character's car is the fastest shortcut to their personality. Your biggest purchase is your biggest self-revelation.
Steven Pressfield's insight: don't wait for the commitment to feel real before acting like a professional. Set up the studio. Make the schedule. Show up. Commitment doesn't precede action — it follows it. You act like a pro first, and your brain catches up with justifications after. The action is the commitment.
Robby Hoffman isn't fearless — she's terrified all the time. The difference is she does it anyway, because not doing it feels worse than the fear itself.
John Mulaney texted Robby Hoffman out of nowhere saying he'd been a fan for a while and wanted to make a Netflix special with her. Robby called it 'shocking, horrifying, anxiety-inducing, surreal and thrilling' — and said yes.
Mulaney is buttoned-up, suit-wearing, classy. Robby is gritty, raw, and undefined. Together they made the collab nobody expected. Batman and Robin. Eminem and Dido.
Music had Pope Gregory forcing notation. Comedy has had 'magical thinking' — he's just got funny bones. But jokes work through discoverable, teachable mechanics. Writing down the rules doesn't kill the magic; it gives more people access to it.
Howard Ashman had one insight nobody else had: animated Disney films should be Broadway musicals. The third song of every great musical is the character sitting alone explaining what they want. That's 'Part of Your World.' That structure — combined with Alan Menken's compositions — generated Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, and turned Disney Animation into the most profitable creative engine in entertainment history.
The Lion King musical has been running for 30 years across Broadway, London's West End, and global touring companies. It has grossed over $11 billion in total revenue — more than Avatar, more than Avengers: Endgame, more than any album, more than any video game. It generates an average of $350 million in revenue every single year. Disney owns it outright.
The anonymous French artist Invader has hidden 1,500 pixelated mosaic artworks across Paris alone, with thousands more scattered across 80+ cities — affixed to the Eiffel Tower, the Hollywood sign, and even sent to the International Space Station. He might be even busier than Banksy.
The Flash Invaders app turns city streets into a treasure hunt, letting players scan Invader's hidden mosaics for points. Players have collectively logged over 47 million flashes. Unlike most mobile games that glue you to a screen, this one forces you to look up and engage with your surroundings.
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